Although there has been numerous punches designed, and patented, there has never been a centering pop rivet core punch which is specifically designed for removal of a pop rivet core as the present invention. The usual method of removing pop rivets requires the worker to drill the center of the rivet removing enough rivet material so that the rivet shoulders separate from the rivet body. Drilling the center of pop rivets is complicated by the presence of a pop rivet core which is left behind in the center of the pop rivet in the installation process. The core is typically constructed of harder material then the rivet body, therefore attempts to drill the core, which is about 1/16 to about 1/4 inch in diameter, sometimes results in the drill bit wondering from the center of the core and removing material from the surrounding material. Removing the pop rivet core prior to drilling makes the drilling process precede very quickly and easily. The present invention provides a tool which solves these problems.
Punches for various applications are utilized throughout the prior art such as the punch exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,631 to Lincavage, which discloses and claims a plurality of roll pin punches which are easily mounted to a handle and provided as a combination kit.
Loughran, U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,562 discloses a hinge pin and tip removal tool, which tool is utilized for removing the hinge pin from the hinge leaves.
Turner, U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,213 discloses a wrist pin removal device which is adaptable for use on a hydraulic ram and which is utilized for removal of wrist pins from a piston.
Gilmore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,733 discloses a punch for setting a rivet, which includes a sleeve slidingly carried by a shank while a spring urges the sleeve downwardly. This device is used for flattening a rivet in place, and not for removing a pop rivet as the present punch.
Kane, U.S. Pat. No. 3,685,126 discloses a tool for aligning holes through overlapping structural members which includes a stepped segment for insertion into holes of various sizes and a slidable impact member.
As can be seen, there continues to be a need for a new and job specific pop rivet core punch as set forth in the present invention which addresses the problem of removing pop rivets quickly and easily while exerting the least amount of forces to surrounding structural members. The present invention provides this need by providing a pop rivet core punch which includes an alignment sleeve slidable mounted to an elongated punch shaft and springingly urged to extend over a core punching end of the elongated shaft while the sleeve aligns the core punching end with the center of the pop rivet an enlarged handle end on the elongated shaft provides a means for handling the punch and striking the punch with a hammer thereby forcing the spring to compress and pushing the core punching shaft end past the sleeve area and into the pop rivet center thereby removing the pop rivet core from the pop rivet, the pop rivet may then be quickly drilled and removed without damaging the surrounding material.